England got off to a winning start under Thomas Tuchel as goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly and Harry Kane helped the Three Lions to a routine win over Albania at Wembley
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Updated 08:42, 22 Mar 2025
Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel enjoyed the ideal start to his England reign(Image: Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel has ‘fallen in love’ with Myles Lewis-Skelly after the Arsenal teenager made a dream debut under the new England manager. At the age of 18 years and 176 days, Lewis-Skelly became the youngest player to score in his first game for the Three Lions, helping Tuchel make a winning start.
Lewis-Skelly broke Albanian resistance in the 20th minute of the World Cup qualifier before Harry Kane added a late second, the 70th goal of his England career.
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And Tuchel was blown away with Lewis-Skelly, saying: “Amazing player, amazing personality. He came into camp and showed straight away that it's normal to fall in love with him.
"This is well deserved. He was full of courage, full of quality. It was a very impressive performance.”
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Lewis-Skelly said: "I'm lost for words. I am so grateful for the manager to put trust in me. The fans made me feel at home so thank you to them. These past six months have gone so quickly. I stay in the present and I take every moment as it comes.
"I found out in the morning in the meeting (he had been selected) and when I saw my name, my heart started to pound. Honestly, it is incredible - this is a day I'll never forget."
While Tuchel was suitably fulsome in his praise for Lewis-Skelly, he was not overly impressed with his selections for the wide roles, Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden.
Myles Lewis-Skelly
Myles Lewis-Skelly scored the first goal of Thomas Tuchel's reign(Image: Getty Images)
Tuchel said: "We hope for more impact in these positions and then we tried with Anthony [Gordon] and Jarrod [Bowen]. I hope for a little bit more impact with more dribbling and less passing. More aggressive runs towards the box. In general that was missing. I think all of the chances come from the little runs behind the line, Jude had some good runs in the first-half of the first half.
“Myles scored from it and Kyle Walker had one where we had the big chance to score the second one. There was a bit missing they were not as decisive as they can be."
And while it was the perfect start in terms of a result, Tuchel is hoping to see a marked improvement when his team takes on lowly-ranked Latvia at Wembley on Monday.
Tuchel wants to see more from both Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford
Tuchel wants to see more from both Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford
He said: “We can do better, we have to do better. Second half, I felt we were too slow. It’s a first win, a first clean sheet and, hopefully, it gives us some confidence to get quickly better.”
Tuchel is likely to rotate his side for the Latvian game but is unlikely to be able to call on Anthony Gordon, who came on as a late substitute but suffered a hip injury in the closing moments. “It does not look good - it is a bit worrying,” said Tuchel.
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